Posted on 04/20/2014 6:04:41 PM PDT by mgist
DENVER – A college student eats more than the recommended dose of a marijuana-laced cookie and jumps to his death from a hotel balcony. A husband with no history of violence is accused of shooting his wife in the head, possibly after eating pot-infused candy. The two recent deaths have stoked concerns about Colorado’s recreational marijuana industry and the effects of the drug, especially since cookies, candy and other pot edibles can be exponentially more potent than a joint.
“We’re seeing hallucinations, they become sick to their stomachs, they throw up, they become dizzy and very anxious,” said Al Bronstein, medical director of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center. Studies are mixed about whether there is any link between marijuana and violence. Still, pot legalization opponents said the deaths are a sign of future dangers.
Twenty-six people have reported poisonings from marijuana edibles this year, when the center started tracking such exposures. Six were children who swallowed innocent-looking edibles, most of which were in plain sight.
Five of those kids were sent to emergency rooms, and two to hospitals for intensive care, Bronstein said. Children were nauseous and sleepy, and doctors worried about their respiratory systems shutting down. Supporters of the pot law and some experts counter that alcohol causes far more problems among users, and the issues with pot can be largely addressed through better regulations.
The deaths occurred as Colorado lawmakers are scrambling to create safety regulations for the largely unmonitored marijuana snacks. On Thursday, the Legislature advanced a package of bills that would lower the amount of THC that could be permitted in a serving of food and require more extensive warning labels.
“It really is time for regulators, and the industry, to look at how do we move forward more responsibly with edible products,” said Brian Vicente, who helped lead the state’s legalization campaign.
An autopsy report listed marijuana intoxication as a significant contributing factor in the death of 19-year-old Levy Thamba Pongi. Authorities said Pongi, who traveled from Wyoming to Denver with friends to try marijuana, ate six times more than the amount recommended by a seller. In the moments before his death, he spoke erratically and threw things around his hotel room.
RELATED: College Student Ate 6 Times Recommended Amount Of Pot Cookie Before Jumping To Death
Toxicologists later found that the cookie Pongi ate contained as much THC – marijuana’s intoxicating chemical – as six high-quality joints.
Kristine Kirk, left, and Richard Kirk, right 
Less is known about Richard Kirk, 47, who was charged in Denver with shooting his 44-year-old wife, Kristine, to death while she was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher. Police said his wife reported that her husband had consumed marijuana-laced candy, but no information has been released about potency. The public defender’s office has declined comment on the allegations against Kirk.
RELATED: Husband Charged With Murder In Wife’s Shooting Death “Sadly, we’re going to start to understand over time all of the damage and all of the problems associated with marijuana,” said Thornton police Sgt. Jim Gerhardt, speaking in his capacity as a board member of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association. “It’s going to dispel the myth that there’s no downside, that there’s no side effect, to this drug. It’s sad that people are going to have to be convinced with the blood of Coloradans.”
State lawmakers last year required edible pot to be sold in “serving sizes” of 10 milligrams of THC. Lawmakers also charged marijuana regulators with setting potency-testing guidelines to ensure consumers know how much pot they’re eating. The guidelines are slated to be unveiled next month.
For now, the industry is trying to educate consumers about the strength of pot-infused foods and warning them to wait up to an hour to feel any effects before eating more. Still, complaints from visitors and first-time users have been rampant.
“One of the problems is people become very impatient,” Bronstein said. “They eat a brownie or a chocolate chip cookie and they get no effect, so then they stack the doses, and all the sudden, they get an extreme effect that they weren’t expecting.”
Last year, the poison center run by Bronstein received 126 calls concerning adverse reactions to marijuana. So far this year – after pot sales became legal on Jan. 1 – the center has gotten 65 calls. Bronstein attributed the spike to the higher concentrations of THC in marijuana that has become available.
Although millions of Americans have used pot without becoming violent, Bronstein said such behavior is possible depending on the type of hallucinations a user experiences. Toxicologists say genetic makeup, health issues and other factors also can make a difference. “With these products, everybody is inexperienced,” Bronstein said. “It’s the first time people have been able to buy it in a store. People need to be respectful of these products.”
It was simple facts, there was no enthusiasm, just a simple response to a strange question.
The “enthusiasm” was you repeating the same questions to posters.
You’re the one who steered the conversation towards alcohol and civilization in your #35. I was just following that trail a little bit further. I can see why you might want to change the subject though.
I made a relevant post on Cannabis and it’s long term effects, but you seem determined to want to switch to an entirely different thread, and are doing it with some hostility.
An interesting question is why you're so eager to change the subject from alcohol. It wouldn't be because you sense some danger in being exposed as just little bit, um, libertarian when it comes to your favored mind altering substance, would it?
Sounds like the person that said that cigarette smoke cured asthma.
Well, no one can say that you aren’t a little obsessive, it is nice that you go so long thinking about me and posting to me after a day or two of reflection.
You should start a thread about the question you started pestering us with.
Ya. Pretty stupid. What bothers me is that our kids are being fed this BS and believing it. A kid that might not normally have tried it will now be more likely to try it because it “isn’t harmful” and it is actually “good for you.” Or a kid who is already using might use more.
I remember peer pressure in high school and how it worked. And the lies that our peers told us to get us to be less inhibited. It is how many kids started smoking cigarettes, drugs, or sex.
They will say “it is good for you and not harmful because it’s LEGAL”! Nothing that is harmful would be legal, would it? s>>//>
“..and some people even use it to treat medical issues so it must be good for you. So, here try some. And oh by the way, meth is good for you too. It has the same stuff that is in cough medication.”
And so on and so on.
Yeah, but, like, they don't, like, remember that stuff...
A lot fewer idiots would have been run over by their own ox cart and would have gone on to breed more idiots instead...
Wine yes, beer no.
Alcohol’s abundant mention in the Bible.
Also gotta wonder what the motor vehicle related deaths will add up to.
They’re already considerable. They don’t know since they dont’ test for it when stopped by cops or accidents. Also a lot of people drink and smoke dope, or take other drugs and smoke dope. Cocktails.
I
I rest my case.
Thanks for playing, ansel12.
Gosh, there was no question that you were just trolling and playing games, we just didn’t know when you would tire of it.
Like I said, thanks for playing, ansel12. You’re presence on this thread has been quite entertaining.
Go past me, and into arguing with conservatives and conservatism.
I take no pleasure in going past you because, believe it or not, I respect the conservative position on marijuana legalization. Legalizing it seems to me a clear case of slouching towards Gomorrah, in the words of the estimable Robert Bork. At the same time I think libertarians have a good point that people own their bodies and that as long as they’re not harming anyone else, they should be free to do as they please. Furthermore I agree that the war on drugs has a real cost in liberty. This is one of the few issues where I am truly split 50/50, and it bugs me to see one side unfairly demonize the other when there is an intellectually honest case to be made.
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